Wild December pushes US weather in 2015 to near records

That might seem exciting – it wasn’t the hottest year, right? – but the findings still clearly show the effects of climate change in America. NCEI says this is the 19th straight year the Lower 48’s annual temperature was warmer than average.

According to a report released this morning by the National Centers for Environmental Information, 2015 is runner-up to 2012 when the average US temp was 55.3 degrees.

The average national temperature in 2015 was 12.4 degrees Celsius (54.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The monthly average was 41.3 degrees. And the US can likely expect more of the same in years to come as global temperatures continue to rise under a blanket of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Texas and Oklahoma had their wettest years on record. “As for the influence of climate change, it’s just the beginning”.

Extreme weather events happened 70 percent more often than average last year, ranking as the fourth highest annual US Climate Extremes Index in the 106-year record, the NOAA report said.

‘Every state had an above average temperature for the year, ‘ said Crouch.

Four states-Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Washington-saw their all-time warmest year, while three more-Alaska, California, and Idaho-had their second warmest.

Last year was also the third wettest in the US since precipitation records began being kept 121 years ago.

Most of the central and southeastern USA were wetter than average, including 14 states that were much wetter than average. A strong phase in what’s known as the “Arctic Oscillation” – a seesaw pattern of differences in Arctic atmospheric pressures that has a big impact on North America – and El Niño, which typically results in hotter and wetter conditions in the East.

There were also 10 separate weather and climate events that cost at least $1 billion damages, including the Western drought, the wildfires in the West and Alaska, two floods, 5 severe storm outbreaks, and a winter storm in February in the Northeast.

Temperature rankings for each state for December 2015.